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it could be of advantage.
This battery has six brass Napoleons, 12-pounders.
They are very destructive at short range.
It is followed by a battery of steel guns.
They are Parrots, three-inch rifles; best for long range, but good anywhere.
Not so safe for close action, however, as the Napoleons.
Yonder you can see the Second Division moving across the fields, made up like the one just passed.
It will close in upon the rear of this division farther up the road.
What an interesting spectacle it presents, the bright sunlight glinting from the thousands of polished muskets, the moving masses of light and dark blue inching along over the uneven ground, the various flags streaming proudly in the air, marking off the separate brigades and regiments.
The column is moving at a moderate pace.
It takes some time for a corps to get under way. If we wait long enough, the Third Division, made up like the others, will pass by us, unless it has gone on a parallel road.
It is growing warmer.
The column has now got straightened out, and for the last hour has moved forward quite rapidly.
The road is evidently clear of all obstructions, but the heat and speed begin to tell on the men. Look at the ground which that brigade has just vacated after its brief halt for rest.
It is strewn with blankets, overcoats, dresscoats, pantaloons, shirts — in fact, a little of everything from the outfit of the common soldier.
As the Second Corps advanced into the Wilderness on the morning of May 4, 1864, I saw an area of an acre or more almost literally covered with the articles above named, many of them probably extras, but some of them the sole garment of their kind, left by the owners, who felt compelled, from the increasing weight of their load, to lighten it to the extent of parting with the blankets which they would need that very night for shelter.
This lightening of the load began before the columns had been on the road an hour.
A soldier who had been through the mill would not wait for a general
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